School Update

Much of what is noted here places Swanbourne Primary School at the forefront of educational achievement and program innovation. Whilst our current level of success gives much for us to celebrate – we still have much more that we want to achieve. Striving for excellence is an ongoing pursuit.

Academic

Year 3 (like school comparison)

Numeracy – we are performing better than like schools peers and we have more students in the higher proficiency bands and less in the lower proficiency bands. Also we have more students in the top 20% - less in the middle 60% and equivalent percentage in the bottom 20%

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 3 Numeracy

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

34%

46%

55%

45%

47%

50%

Middle 60%

66%

51%

39%

53%

49%

45%

Bottom 20%

0%

3%

5%

2%

4%

5%

Reading – we are performing better than like schools peers and we have more students in the higher performance bands and less in the lower performance bands. Also we have more students in the top 20% - less in the middle 60% and equivalent percentage in the bottom 20%

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 3 Reading

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

41%

41%

59%

49%

47%

47%

Middle 60%

57%

53%

35%

49%

50%

49%

Bottom 20%

2%

6%

5%

2%

3%

4%

Writing – we are performing the same as like schools in the upper band. In comparison to like schools we have a greater percentage of students in the middle proficiency bands.

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 3 Writing

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

48%

31%

42%

51%

45%

53%

Middle 60%

50%

63%

53%

46%

51%

43%

Bottom 20%

2%

6%

6%

3%

4%

5%

Spelling - we are performing not as well as like schools in spelling. In comparison to like schools we have a greater percentage of students in the middle proficiency bands.

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 3 Spelling

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

40%

37%

27%

45%

37%

41%

Middle 60%

60%

56%

68%

51%

59%

55%

Bottom 20%

0%

7%

5%

3%

4%

4%

Grammar and Punctuation – we are performing as well as like schools in punctuation and grammar. Whilst we are comparable to like schools our goal is to better than our like school peers.

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 3 Grammar & Punctuation

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

40%

40%

43%

53%

42%

44%

Middle 60%

59%

54%

54%

44%

56%

51%

Bottom 20%

2%

6%

3%

3%

3%

4%

Year 5 (like school comparison)

Numeracy – we are performing better than our like schools peers. We have more students in the higher proficiency bands and less in the lower proficiency bands. Also we have more students in the top 20% - less in the middle 60% and equivalent percentage in the bottom 20%

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 5 Numeracy

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

45%

31%

50%

49%

50%

48%

Middle 60%

49%

64%

48%

48%

48%

49%

Bottom 20%

6%

5%

2%

2%

2%

3%

Reading – we are performing significantly better than our like schools peers. We have far more students in the higher proficiency bands and less in the lower proficiency bands. Also we have more students in the top 20% - less in the middle 60% and no students in the bottom 20%

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 5 Reading

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

44%

40%

50%

48%

48%

43%

Middle 60%

52%

55%

50%

49%

50%

53%

Bottom 20%

4%

5%

0%

3%

2%

4%

Writing – we are performing the same as like schools in the second most upper proficiency band. However, we have slightly fewer students performing in the upper band. In comparison to like schools we have a greater percentage of students in the middle proficiency bands. Overall our writing in year 5 is comparable. However, it can be improved. My initial analysis shows too few students using tier 2 and 3 words and complex sentences. See notes at end of document.

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 5 Writing

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

25%

23%

45%

52%

44%

49%

Middle 60%

71%

64%

51%

44%

54%

47%

Bottom 20%

4%

14%

4%

4%

2%

3%

Spelling – we are performing comparably to like schools in all bands except the top proficiency band. We have too many students in the middle most proficiency band. This fact can be seen in the graph below.

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 5 Spelling

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

36%

30%

37%

45%

40%

41%

Middle 60%

58%

61%

61%

50%

57%

55%

Bottom 20%

6%

9%

2%

5%

3%

4%

Grammar and Punctuation – We are performing better than like schools in the top 2 proficiency bands and comparably in the lower proficiency bands.

Percentages of students in top 20%, middle 60%, bottom 20% of the WA Public Schools and among Like Schools

Year 5 Grammar & Punctuation

WA Public Schools

School

Like Schools

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

Top 20%

30%

32%

43%

46%

52%

42%

Middle 60%

68%

61%

57%

50%

45%

54%

Bottom 20%

2%

7%

0%

4%

3%

3%

The measure of student progress and achievement between years 3 and 5 is a key academic measure for any school.

The aim is for students to show a high rate of progress between years 3 and 5 as well as higher achievement when compared to ‘like schools’. In using the same cohort of students (year 3 in 2014 and year 5 in 2016) Swanbourne students showed high achievement and progress between years 3 and 5.

All measured areas show high progress and achievement between years 3 and 5 when compared to like schools.

Writing is the showed less a lower rate of progress and achievement.

The performance of Swanbourne Primary School students also compares very favourably to neighbouring schools with higher ICSEA values (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage).

Achievement and Progress between years 3 and 5

Non-Academic

It is less than desirable (if not folly) to assess the value of a child’s educational experiences solely on their performance in academic tests. Our school offers each child much more than academic programs.

Camps

Two Dampier Junior Leadership Development Camps for all of the year 6 students. (See photos on Face Book and Instagram)

Two Zoo Camps for all of the year 4 students

Excursions

Aqua – for the year 1 students

Penguin Island excursion for the year 2 students

Carnivals

School swimming Carnival

Interschool swimming Carnival

Grounds

Landscaping quotes (4) have been sought from external agencies to provide extensive landscaping to the school. The intent is to establish an improved standard for our wonderful school site.

Nature Scape 2 – we have resolved the outstanding issues all necessary permissions to complete phase 2 of the Natures Scape playgrounds.

School Board

The School Board has met and approved a copy of the Terms of Reference and the plans to transition from a Council to a School Board.

Partnerships

We are maintaining existing partnerships formed across previous years and we are continuing to build new connections that will provide further benefit to the students.

Communication

Web site is up and running and has proven to be a very good communication tool.

The school’s Facebook page receives strong support as a communication medium.

Instagram has been used to provide parents with images from camps and excursions.

In short, as a school community we have a lot that we can be very proud of.

Our school self-review and our focus on developing a ‘whole of school’ understanding on the intricacies of our student performance data highlights the areas where we can continue to make further improvements.

The IPS program has enabled us to place resource where we need them to be as opposed to allocating resources according to some other criteria not directly connected to improving student performance.